Tim Hortons, the Canadian restaurant chain best known in the U.S. for its coffee and doughnuts, is hoping to bring some of its bakery cafés to New Jersey with a franchise agreement to open shops in Middlesex County.

In its quarterly earnings report this week, the company revealed that it had entered into a partnership to open 25 Tim Hortons restaurants in Middlesex County and on Staten Island over the next 10 years. A company spokeswoman said on Friday that it was not ready to reveal the name of the franchisee. There currently are no franchise agreements in place for Bergen, Passaic or other North Jersey counties, the spokeswoman said.

Tim Hortons, named for a former professional hockey player, is the largest restaurant chain in Canada, with 3,630 locations. The company has 866 shops in the United States and has been in this country close to 20 years.

It has yet to establish much of a presence in New Jersey, where it faces tough competition not only from the many local coffee shops but from other well-entrenched chains, particularly Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks.

Many of its locations in this state are coffee bars inside food courts or entertainment venues, including a coffee bar at the Skylands Ice World arena in Stockholm in Sussex County.

In this country, the chain’s restaurants are called Tim Hortons Cafe and Bake Shop. The freestanding cafés that the company hopes to open in New Jersey typically have lounge seating, flat-screen televisions and fireplaces in addition to drive-through windows, the spokeswoman said.

Most of Tim Hortons American restaurants are in New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Maine. The company’s U.S. headquarters are in Columbus, Ohio.